what would you define as "good prose"? what makes prose

>>8355482
>post examples of what you consider "good"
Romeo and Juliet provided an outlet to talk about sex in the classroom (...)
“Right. I think if they’d never had sex, they wouldn’t have killed themselves and stuff. I saw this video about how sex can, like, release stuff from your brain and make you crazy.” (...)
So tell me, Jack, since you don’t speak up in class and leave me guessing at the thoughts inside that head of yours. What do you think makes someone crazier—having sex? Or not having it?” His eyes widened; it seemed to take a moment for his brain to confirm I’d really asked him that question. He laughed and lowered his head a little, shaking it nervously.

“Ah-ah,” I cooed, this time using all my fingers to cup his chin in my hand and guide it back upward. His fuzzy cheeks had a downy softness. If I squeezed, I would be able to lift apart his top and bottom jaw, open his mouth and lower mine down to meet his. “Here,” I offered, “I’ll hold your head up so you don’t have to worry about eye contact.” Staring at him, Jack returning the stare as the pulse of his throat began to strike against my finger, I felt as though someone were licking my inner thigh.

“I … um,” he started. When he swallowed, his throat strained against the gentle pressure of my fingertips.“I know you have an opinion,” I teased, my words silken. “Everybody does.”

He cleared his throat and sent vibrations up my wrist. “I just wouldn’t know about the having-sex part,” he said. Then, with an afterthought that nearly made me move my hands to his neck and force him against the wall, he added a foreshadowing phrase. “I mean,” he added quietly, now speaking even more quietly than me, “not yet.”

I let out a long breath; it was involuntary. Nearly a whimper. Worried he'd seen too much in my reaction, my hand slipped from his jaw and I took a step back. "Of course." I nodded. There was a long beat of silence. "But the not having sex, just between you and me—I'm curious. Does it make you crazy? I forget what it’s like to be your age. You’re fourteen, right?"

"Yeah." On his brow I noticed the beginning of the slightest glimmer of sweat. "Juliet was going on fourteen. You can tell me, I won’t judge you. Does it make you crazy?"

Perhaps fearing my guiding hand again, he did his best to continue looking me in the eye; ultimately, though, he couldn't do it. His glance wandered to the left. "I guess it feels that way sometimes," he said. "When I let my mind run with it and stuff."

My composure regained, I stepped forward, closer now than even before, touching my face against the side of his head as my lips found his ear. "And when you do let your mind run, Jack Patrick," I whispered, asking him in secret so that not even the walls of the room could overhear his answer, "when your mind is running as fast as it can... do you ever feel like if you don’t get relief you could physically die?"

>>8355541

Placing my hands on his shoulders, I lowered my head and moved my ear against the warmth of his mouth, awaiting a response. For several moments I could hear nothing but labored breathing that sounded like an answer in itself.

"I don’t know," he said, his breath hot upon my hair. When he stopped talking, I pulled more tightly on his shoulders, drawing his mouth so that it actually pressed against my ear. "It can feel intense," he admitted.

Just as my right hand began to move from his shoulder down his left arm, the tardy bell for lunch rang; in the silence of the classroom after our whispered voices, it sounded so loud as to seem internal. We jumped in unison. It felt as though the noise had just caught us there, standing too close. He looked up at me, worried-late to lunch meant a write-up, three write-ups meant in-school suspension. I gave his shoulder a final squeeze, then quickly moved toward my desk as though nothing had happened.

"Don’t worry," I said, my voice back at normal volume, "I'll write you a pass. I appreciate you staying and sharing your point of view with me." He was silent as I wrote, but I could feel him looking at my body in a revised manner, his assumed boundaries having just been proven wrong. "Do you already have any write-ups?"

He shook his head. When I handed him the pass I felt an enjoyable sense of commerce, like I was giving him a check for his services. "Good boy." I smiled.

But the moment he left the room my smile faded. I reached up my shirt and pinched my nipples as hard as I could, my fingernails digging in until my eyes began to water.

>>8355543
what is this from?

>>8355821
alissa nutting

I just deleted my post twice. Fuck it.

Good prose is just a judgment of style basically. That's how some people can have great ideas, or other aspects, but shit prose. This is frustrating at times for readers.

>>8355839
LINK

>>8356007
It's on bookz

>>8356011
oh i thought it was porn

>>8355543
>good boy

HNNNNGH

File: Picture 10.png (113KB, 452x755px) Image search: [Google]

113KB, 452x755px

Doesnt feel over descriptive, even when it delves in very descriptive passages and can connect similes and comparisons with the narrative flawlessly.

That's part of it for me. Same goes the opposite direction. Very simplistic, but engaging and impactful, even when it is extremely simple.

Pic related, is bad prose. It's from Emma Cline's the Girls, a book that has gotten a lot of attention. The hype got to me, but luckily I read the first 20 odd pages and just was not enjoying the style at all. I post a pic of what I think is bad prose because it's harder to fins something that is universally considered good prose.

>>8355482
what is said and how it is said

>>8356063
that's definitely painful

>>8356063
Clines 2 million dollar book that is. To put that in perspective delillo got 1.3 for underworld. Both numbers are advances only, dont know what happened after release

>>8356063
My God, that is atrocious.

>>8356063
>dumb quiet

i know some people just have no sense of wording but how the fuck does an editor let this through

>>8356063
funny that the first time i heard about this book was on a forum post detailing how great the writing of this book is.plebs sure love prentensious writing

>>8356015
It is.

>>8356202
erotica, in the spirit of Lolita, with genders reversed